The California Board of Parole Hearings on Thursday rejected the release of Erik Menendez, one of the two brothers convicted in the 1989 killing of their parents in Southern California.
The board decided that Menendez should remain ineligible for parole for three years following a hours-long hearing conducted via videoconference, where he appeared from prison in San Diego.
The board’s panel of commissioners denied him parole despite support from family members who called for the brothers’ release.
Parole board commissioner Robert Barton said the decision was primarily due to Menendez’s conduct while in prison.
“Two things can be true. They can love and forgive you, and you can still be found unsuitable for parole,” Barton said.
The panel cited Menendez’s violation of prison rules, including cellphone use and allegations that he worked with a prison gang.
Erik Menendez said his behavior was driven by a belief that he would never be released, leading him to focus on protecting himself over adhering to the rules until last fall, when prosecutors asked a judge to resentence him and his brother, Lyle Menendez, giving them the possibility of parole.
“In November of 2024, now the consequences mattered,” Erik Menendez said. “Now the consequences meant I was destroying my life.”
The panel also took issue with the burglaries he committed in high school before the murder of his parents, as well as the killing of their mother, Kitty Menendez.
“When I look back at the person I was then and what I believed about the world and my parents, running away was inconceivable,” Erik Menendez said. “Running away meant death.”
The two brothers were initially sentenced to life without parole. In May, their sentences were reduced to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole after serving over 30 years in prison.
The board is also set to decide on Lyle Menendez’s parole on Friday.
The brothers, who were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings, said they acted out of self-defense following years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, Jose Menendez, that went ignored by their mother, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the final say on whether the two will be released. In February, Newsom ordered the state parole board to investigate whether they would pose a risk to the public if granted parole.
The state’s legal standard for parole is whether an inmate poses an unreasonable risk to public safety, which must be determined before the governor can make a decision on commutation.
Elma Aksalic and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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